The Daily Telegraph – Web could run out of addresses next year, warn web experts
Businesses urgently need to upgrade to IPv6, a new version of the internet’s addressing protocol that will hugely increase the number of available addresses. A survey, conducted by the European Commission, found that few companies are prepared for the switch from the current naming protocol, IPv4, to the new regime, IPv6. Web experts have warned that we could run out of internet addresses within the next two years unless more companies migrate to the new platform.

The Daily Telegraph – Broadband tax will force 100,000 homes to give up internet connection, warns Dunstone
Charles Dunstone, the chief executive of TalkTalk, fears the Government’s plans to boost rural broadband coverage will penalise poorer households. Mr Dunstone estimates that around 100,000 lower income households will be forced to give up their own internet connections in able to cover the 50p per month tax that will be added to all domestic phone bills to fund the roll-out of next-generation broadband networks.

Computer Weekly – Use IT to innovate, says Gartner
Banks and financial services companies need to use IT to promote innovation rather than focusing on cutting costs, according to analyst group Gartner. Gartner research vice-president, Peter Redshaw, said innovation is essential to firms as they prepare for recovery. However, many firms are too focused on the short-term goals of surviving the downturn, he said.

Computer Weekly – Online retailers ready to spend big on IT
Online retailers are not waiting for the economic recovery before investing in new technology, as confidence grows that the sector will rebound faster than others. Online sales have not been hit as hard by the economic slowdown as high street sales. Despite the recession, the average monthly increase this year of online sales is 15 per cent, according to the latest research from IMRG and Capgemini.

IT PRO – Pirate Bay prosecution saw explosion of file sharing
The number of file sharing websites that host pirated content has increased by 300 per cent over the last three months. So claims security company McAfee, which said that when the Pirate Bay was being prosecuted in August, many sites sprang up to help users who were looking for new places to get pirated content.